This weekend marks the fifth anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the Gulf Coast and left hundreds of dead bodies floating in the wrecked streets of New Orleans. To celebrate, Katrina hero Michael Brown is "speaking out."

Another day, another "good" oil spill story. Once again, scientists say bacteria is eating oil, and the giant underwater plume is basically harmless (again!). This one should hold up until someone discovers glow-in-the dark sea turtles next week. [NPR]

[Tents are set up at a camp organized by the Pakistan Army for Pakistani families displaced by floods in the Sindh province in southern Pakistan. Pic via AP.]

Chilean miners, trapped underground without contact for 17 days, sent a message to the surface saying that they were all alive. "The 33 of us in the shelter are well," read the note, "and could someone please DVR Mad Men."

Three weeks of flooding in Pakistan has made four million people homeless, and one third of the country has been hit directly. And yesterday, Pakistan's UN envoy said the official number of 1,500 dead is too low. [Image: Getty]

The owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig, Transocean, has accused BP of withholding information about the rig explosion on April 20. BP calls it a "publicity stunt" meant to deflect attention. Meanwhile, the mess both companies created is still there.

Russia is finally catching a break with some cool weather, and the fires are dwindling.

The devastating floods in Pakistan and widespread fires in Russia are caused by the same thing: God. Ha, no, totally kidding—they were caused by a "kink" in the jet stream, a "river of air" miles above the surface.

Flooding in Pakistan has already left an estimated 20 million people homeless and killed at least 1,500. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited flooded areas and appealed for help: "The scale of this disaster is so large." [BBC; Getty]

An estimated 20 million people in Pakistan have been left homeless by flooding, and there are reports of cholera in at least one area.

Some of the hundreds of wildfires that have burned western Russia have been reported in areas that were heavily contaminated by fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Experts fear that smoke from fires in the area has become radioactive.

[Rescue workers prepare to search a destroyed building for survivors after a mudslide in Northwest Chinese city Zhouqu. The disaster was the result of massive flooding in the region. Image via AP]

The AP is reporting that former Alaska Republican senator Ted Stevens was one of eight or nine passengers aboard an airplane that crashed in Alaska. His condition is unknown. Officials say there are "possible fatalities."

Seven hundred people are dying in Moscow every day, according to a Russian health official, as the sweltering city is choked by smog from hundreds of peat bog fires. Depressing quote from a morgue worker: "The refrigerators are full." [Guardian]

Yesterday BP announced that the cement plug in the leaking Gulf oil well was a success, and that a relief well would be finished later this month. The company also said the spill has so far cost it $6.1 billion.

What happened this weekend? Major flooding killed hundreds in Asia and displaced thousands in Europe, while Russia battled back against peat fires blanketing Moscow in smog. Here, check out some of the breathtaking pictures.

Now that BP's oil well is plugged, government scientists can start looking at what 1.8 million gallons of the chemical dispersant Corexit did to the environment, and seafood in the Gulf of Mexico. The FDA says don't sweat it!

[Tourists in front of Moscow's St. Basil's Cathedral argue over whose idea it was to vacation in Russia as the country burns and smoke from raging wildfires blankets the capital. Image via AP]

BP shot a bunch of cement into its once leaky oil well, 108 days after the spill began.

BP today will cement the top of the Gulf oil well after the "static kill" succeeded in stopping the oil flow. And reports now say the spill was not as bad as originally thought. Great! No harm no foul, right?